8/30/11 2:51 PM EST

This will, I think, be a point of pride for John McCain, a deep Russia skeptic: Pro-government protesters outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow earlier this week seemed to be specializing in obscene references to the Arizona senator.

The sign in the center reads, "McCain, are you wanna be f--ed of our rockets?"

The protesters were from the nationalist, pro-Putin youth group Nashi, and the photographs appear on the blog of the spokeswoman for the group, Kristina Potupchik.

1/21/11 1:51 PM EST

The hype around "O" sent me back to an unhyped, self-published anonymous campaign novel whose author -- an advance staffer from what sure reads like the McCain campaign -- sent over a few weeks ago.

"The Choreographers" is, mostly, about how much fun, and how intense, it is to be a young advance staffer, and actual politics are secondary to the very recognizable logistics that consume much of a campaign's energy. I wouldn't show the book to Michiko Kakutani quite yet, but it does capture the stagecraft of notable campaign events -- panic about the lighting before the Palin rollout, for instance, and this passage describing perhaps the most memorable of McCan's rallies, at the biker rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. "Senator Bell" is the McCain character:

Secret Service was finishing bringing in sections of metal gate called bike rack to create the hard perimeter around the stage area. Inserted at thirty foot intervals, between the sections of bike rack, were eight walk-through metal detectors. It left about half a football field’s area of land inside the perimeter.

Kelsie already organized the few local press on the press riser and was putting all her energy into getting as many motorcycles inside the secure perimeter as possible. Brian was out at the entrance of the campground directing traffic towards Kelsie. Both were surprised by the high numbers bringing their bikes in. By the time noon came around, over 500 motorcycles were lined in front of the stage. Lawn chairs, ATV’s, and towels marked off remaining territory as thousands of people were anxious to reserve their spots for the speech.

“Kels, did you see all the bikes in there?” Brian asked, meeting Kelsie by one of the security checkpoints outside the perimeter. Agent Pike and four other Service agents cleared everyone out and was beginning their two hour security sweep, which involved bringing in the K-9 units to go through each motorcycle.

“I don’t think anyone’s ever done an event where there was a motorcycle that had fake plastic breasts covering the windshield.”

“What? Where?”

“Right up in front of the stage. And the one next to it has a sign reading, ‘Show Your Tits For Bell.’”

“HQ has no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into with this thing. What’s he going to talk about? ‘I would like to address the rising cost of healthcare’”

“He’ll stage dive and sign breasts.”

If you're curious -- or if you're a McCain advance staffer interested in figuring out which of your cohort wrote the book under the pen name "Stephen Oakwood" -- it's available here.

1/5/11 5:15 PM EST

Observers of the 2008 election viewed John McCain's September 15, 2008 pronouncement -- as the financial crisis unspooled -- that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" as a signal gaffe. Obama's campaign pounced, using it to paint McCain as out of touch.

McCain's policy director, Doug Holtz-Eakin, today defended the pronouncement on the merits, writing that it's part of the job of the president, and of a candidate, to talk up the economy:

To me, at least, leadership means you don’t “talk down” the economy and don’t demagogue important economic issues. As director of economic policy for the McCain 2008 campaign, I took great pains to ensure that the senator was not perceived as predicting (or worse, advocating) doom for the U.S. economy. When running for president one should act and speak like someone who would be president.

Holtz-Eakin argues that Obama has fallen down on this part of the job as president.

And he confirmed in a phone conversation just now that he was referring to the notorious McCain line.

"The American people were scared -- they eneded to know that not everything had fallen apart," he said, noting that Obama made a similar point later that month.

He did concede, however, that it he was making a policy case, not a political one.

11/12/10 9:44 AM EST

John McCain has been central to blocking the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"; but in this new anti-bullying video from the advocacy group NOH8 Campaign, his wife sure seems to come down on the other side.

"Our political and religious leaders tell LGBT youth that they have no future. They can't serve our country openly," she says in a shot at, well, her husband. "Our government treats the LGBT community like second class citizens, why shouldn't they?"

This is pretty sharp language. McCain isn't just opposing the law -- she's attacking the politicians who support it.

8/9/10 11:30 AM EST

7/12/10 11:45 AM EST

Joe Hagan, profiling what he sees as an angry John McCain, suggests he's jealous of the new model maverick:

When Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy’s old seat and agreed to campaign for McCain in Arizona, McCain could hardly believe he needed a political neophyte from the Northeast to help him draw crowds in his own state, especially one who had declined McCain’s invitation to campaign for him in Massachusetts (fearing McCain’s Establishment taint). After a rally at Grand Canyon University, McCain was annoyed when Brown tried giving him campaign advice while they drove in a car together. Three nights later, Brown and McCain were scheduled to have dinner, but McCain canceled.

7/7/10 2:04 PM EST

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth's first ad tells you everything you need to know about the contours of the Arizona GOP Senate primary.

To recap: Hayworth is the conservative challenger and Sen. John McCain the incumbent. McCain is also a deeply unpopular figure among the sort of Arizona Republicans who show up to vote in August primaries.

Yet it's Hayworth who is on defense in his TV debut, a low-budget number apparently airing only on Fox News in Tucson.

Why is a challenger deploying his wife with the soft-lens, my-husband-is-not-perfect line as his first commercial out of the shoot?

Because, to borrow the term favored by some in Harry Reid's circle, McCain has all but vaporized Hayworth since the moment the former congressman expressed interest in challenging the senator.

This has come at the behest of McCain himself. A close associate of McCain's told me earlier this year that the senator was watching with great interest how his former ally Florida Gov. Charlie Crist was being dismantled by Marco Rubio and state and national conservatives. McCain made plain to his inner circle that they were to ensure that what happened to Crist did not happen to him.

And, so far, it hasn't.

To inoculate himself he's run from the, yes, maverick image he nurtured for years and perhaps done lasting damage to his brand.

6/8/10 2:16 PM EST

John McCain is running the kind of full-out negative campaign against J.D. Hayworth that some Republicans wish he'd run against Barack Obama, and here's the latest installment: A sneering new ad attacking the former congressman's lobbying stint.

The strategy team including Rick Davis, Charlie Black, Mark Buse and Mark Salter remains in place in the same roles, Rogers said.

The move came days after McCain unveiled a new television ad stressing the importance of stronger border fence to combat illegal immigration. "Complete the danged fence," McCain says in the ad, which features McCain walking along the border with a county sheriff.

The spot was widely mocked as a dramatic reversal from his position during the presidential campaign, when he told reporters that "walls and fences" were not part of his plan.

The campaign of his primary opponent, former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, seized on the phrase to launch a website, The Complete Danged Truth!, highlighting the incumbent's modified positions during the primary campaign.

A day earlier, in Milwaukee, in front of an audience of more sympathetic businessmen, McCain had been asked how debate over the immigration bill was playing politically. “In the short term, it probably galvanizes our base,” he said. “In the long term, if you alienate the Hispanics, you’ll pay a heavy price.” Then he added, unable to help himself, “By the way, I think the fence is least effective. But I’ll build the goddamned fence if they want it.”